I've increasingly realised that I'm taking too few photos that surprise me, let alone wow me. And aside from the family snaps and "recording the moment" types of photo, it's the wow-me images that I long to create.

In an ideal world I would take time out and do a boot camp course, or even take time out and go off on my own and really focus on photography. However, in the real world, work and family commitments limit the amount of free-floating time I have, and experience shows that I make progress when I have the structure of a course to follow.

So I'm looking for a distance-learning photography course that will stretch me aesthetically. I've been looking at the Bryan Peterson offerings here and wondering if there are any others that I should consider.

Stuarte, If you understand your camera and your post-processing software, there's not much a "course" can teach you. They can't teach you to see wow-me images. You have to be able to see those before you go out to shoot. The thread just before this one "Discerning Good Images" that Rocco Penny started covered the subject at length. The best course you could take is probably in your local library: books by people like Eugene Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Elliott Erwitt, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Doisneau, Andre Kertesz, Paul Strand, Brassai, Steve McCurry, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, to name just a few. The best "structure" you can have is to discipline yourself to pick up one of those books every evening and really study the pictures in them. Some will wow you. Some won't. But after you've looked at them for a while you'll begin to develop an understand of what kind of picture wows you. Once you've learned that you're ready to go out with your camera.

Stuarte, If you understand your camera and your post-processing software, there's not much a "course" can teach you. They can't teach you to see wow-me images. You have to be able to see those before you go out to shoot. The thread just before this one "Discerning Good Images" that Rocco Penny started covered the subject at length. The best course you could take is probably in your local library: books by people like Eugene Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Elliott Erwitt, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Doisneau, Andre Kertesz, Paul Strand, Brassai, Steve McCurry, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, to name just a few. The best "structure" you can have is to discipline yourself to pick up one of those books every evening and really study the pictures in them. Some will wow you. Some won't. But after you've looked at them for a while you'll begin to develop an understand of what kind of picture wows you. Once you've learned that you're ready to go out with your camera.

Russ gives excellent advice here, and his list of photographers is a very good one for your purpose. Once you begin to see which pictures wow you and which don't, try to explain to yourself why you favor the ones you do.

While there's good advice above, to answer your actual question I recommend kelbytraining.com. Many of their courses are geared towards beginners, most towards intermediates. They have everything from composition to post-processing. It's very American so expect overdone cheeriness, blatant product placement and too much fluff, but at the price they offer it's tough to beat; monthly subscription gives you full access to their entire archive.

The issue is whether you have the information you need to insure you're doing what you intend.For me, I really crave making stuff, and photography was a natural path to that end.Now having discovered the many layers of knowledge and talent others have contributed in the world has me craving just a decent vocabulary of the physical,in order to LEARN more and more at the feet of people even right here on this board.Digest as much art as you can.Not just photography.Look for the imagery and expression that really makes you LOVE what you're feeling.

Work, hard.

I'd say a limited circle of artist friends and acquaintances I have access to is really a limitation in my mind.If you can, hang out with somebody that knows something about art.That helps me a lot.Good luck,

However, there are many great DVD training seminars from people like JP Caponigro, Vincent Versace, Zack Arias, Joe McNally, etc. But in the end you've got to shoot meaningful pics. BTW, I think David duChemin's book, "Within the Frame, The Journey of Photographic Vision," is a great book that will inspire you to take better shots.

Have a look at Peter Eastway's Master Classes - http://www.betterphotography.com/index.php...9&Itemid=80 - there is a free one to 'suck it and see'. While I do not always agree with what he does with his photos, finding out HOW he does it teaches me lost of new stuff. Each video runs 15-20 mins.

I have learnt a lot of new Photoshop and capture One features and how to use them.

Whilst it is impossible to argue sensibly against the advice to look at the work of as many of the most recognised photographers as possible that 'course' of education would be seriously incomplete for what the original poster was seeking.To get beyond the routine one needs to look long and slow and hard at other branches of Art - painting, sculpture and all other forms of artistic expression, but for me especially painting with which photography has so many parallels.I firmly believe that Art Galleries (and art books) are the best education a photographer can get - once one has learned the basics of the camera and how it works.